OutRight Board Member, Michael Ighodaro, is Featured in The Independent

Michael Ighodaro, who joined OutRight's in 2016, has been featured recently in The Independent. He spoke about being violently attacked in his home city, seeking asylum in the US, and the issues that LGBT people across the world.

A hangover from colonial rule, anti-gay laws in Nigeria can lead to punishments including 14 years in prison to death by stoning. Gay people are also banned from holding meetings or forming clubs. Ighodaro, who is an Assisant Professor in Global LGBTI Studies at The new School University in New York, is among activists fighting for laws and attitudes affected LGBT people in countries across the world to be changed. In 2015, he was named a White House Honoree and a World Refugee Champion of Change for his work with the New York-based Aids Vaccine Advocacy Coaltion (AVAC) and the Housing Works organisation which helps people coping with HIV/Aids and homelessness. He more recently became a board member for Outright International, which fights for LGBT rights worldwide.

The 30-year-old spoke to The Independent about how he learned as a child that being gay is seen as "wrong", and the work to help LGBT people that still needs to be done.